Discourse, artifacts, and the ozarks: Understanding academic literacy

Abstract

As we teachers of ESL reading and writing continue our discussions about preparing second language (L2) students for the academic mainstream, we find ourselves on a theoretical and pedagogical frontier that is largely uncharted. In essence, we seem to be moving rapidly toward a broader social view of language with hardly a border check as we cross from one paradigm to another. In order to understand where we are headed and why we should venture there, it seems important to survey the landscape and consider the potential ahead. My survey proceeds as follows: (1) I wrestle with the notion of academic discourse community, for without it we cannot understand or even posit a concept of academic literacy; (2) in light of the socially constructed nature of an academic literacy, I argue for a different way of framing the questions we need to answer as we compose our ESL classes; (3) I discuss the role of personal experience in learning, language acquisition, and academic writing and reading, a role that I claim is essential; and (4) I end with an assessment of the implications for the ESL classroom.